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How Many Official Boyfriends Have You Had?

I was talking to a female friend of mine from high school on the phone a few days ago about how many official boy/girlfriends we have had in our relatively short lifetimes. Our standard for what makes a relationship official was pretty simple - did you called them your boy/girlfriend? Yes? Put 'em on the list. Listening to her figure it out was pretty funny: “Well, there was Blake back in sixth grade - we were boyfriend-girlfriend for three days after the skating party. And Mike from sophomore year called me his girlfriend, but I thought it was just a drunken fling ” She ultimately came up with a magic number of seven, which made me feel a little unseasoned.

Angie and I did it up proper last night. I don't usually go out on school nights, but I needed to blow off some steam and Angie is always a kick in the pants. You're only young(ish) once, right?

I’ve had two official girlfriends: my high school flame and my college sweetheart. The first was my girlfriend for a month (although the drama lasted far longer than that) and the second was my girlfriend for two years. Since then, I’ve dated a number of women, never for longer than a few months. In at least one case, we broke up because I wasn’t ready to call her my girlfriend.

In an ideal world we wouldn’t need to label our relationships, but in reality we are insecure creatures who crave validation and certainty. But can we agree that the terms “boyfriend” and “girlfriend” are kinda infantile? What’s wrong with “paramour”, “ladyfriend” or my personal favorite, “beau”? But I digress. How many official boyfriends have you had?